Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS: Mammon's Wrath V2
by And then the sky
Summary: (Rewrite of Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS: Mammon's Wrath) The wheel of fate and Providence moves in mysterious ways. It's not always clear who it will favour. Sateriasis Marlon is a 16 year old bounty hunter contracted to the Knights of Hanoi who is one of the people under its omnipotent influence. Just what will occur when a spectre of the past haunts him? "Rota fatum, volvit!"
1. Chapter 1

**(Undefined Time and Location)**

"_To those for whom there's no beginning, no end, and no connecting. I'll open this door for you. I'll find out whether what you hold in your body is brutal desire or a blazing will. If you hold neither of those things then you don't deserve to exist. Will is what runs humanity but desire is what rules the world, everything done is because it was desirable for the person, if you ever hear someone say that they are too busy then they're lying. Nobody is too busy, it's just a matter of priorities. However, desire is easy to mani-" _Some white noise then overpowered the voice for a brief moment of time, cutting out what it was about to say _"I don't care so much about whether the short term goal bears fruit, Kogami can have his little Ai but all I need is for my long term goal to bloom into the beautiful oak I know it will be… Within these arms, these legs, these eyes and these cheeks, my testimony will forever endure…"_

Silence reigned for what seemed like forever, occasionally broken up by sounds of someone shuffling paper around on a desk and talking to someone in the background, then the voice made its reappearance _"Everyone dreams of their own utopia. It's a strange belief, Utopia. There's this rogue belief about it that everyone benefits from it, what many don't realise is what has to be sacrificed for that Utopia to take shape and how many people need to have their rights violated to maintain it. Utopia seekers are the worst people in the world, every Utopia is different since we are all individuals so it's for the best if you don't kid yourself into thinking you have other people's thoughts at heart. Utopia is an inherently selfish idea. I don't devote myself to that idea, I don't believe there is such a thing as a perfect world. Humanity and AI are deeply flawed, to seek a so called perfect world is a delusion of grandeur and dangerous for humanity as a whole. You see, perfection is a stupid concept, it weighs you down with the fear of failure. You can never fail if you know you are going to succeed. Your desire is what matters in this world, the desire to improve yourself and the desire to better others round you. If you have no desire you don't have will and thus you don't deserve to live."_

"Wring out the desire…" And the voice cut out.

* * *

**(Some time in the future)**

"Come let us dance in this harem…" Those words belonged to a very pale skinned male as he reached out his hand to the approaching blonde girl. The pale skin being a weirdly hereditary trait in his family "Come into my hands, I promise I won't cause you any harm." The male had long purple hair with a sultry slant in his eyes, both of which were a blood red in colour making a heavy contrast against his ivory skin. His hair was tied back by a black ribbon into a ponytail that was long enough to go down to his midback "I can only be seen by you, so keep those eyes on me." He was dressed in a very aristocratic purple outfit with a white cravat held back by a broch with a purple gem in it. Eight golden buttons, four on either side of his torso alongside silver epilates adorned his outfit. He had white cuffs which were also adorned by four gold buttons.

The pair began to dance across an elaborately designed checkerboard ballroom. The male's eyes flicked down to the girl's smiling visage and he too began to grin, this was all going according to his plan, he placed a finger under her chin and manoeuvred them both to eye level. He was standing at about 6'1 if you counted the calf high black boots, the girl was probably just cracking 5'11 "Now, join me in this harem, let me give you satisfaction as the King of the night."

He smirked when the girl pressed up against his chest. Perfect~. Then suddenly he felt a pain that was so sharp and unreal. He staggered back to see a bronze hilted dagger stabbed into his chest, a large pool of blood started to stain his clothes "W-what!? What's going on!?" He screamed.

"Your complacency was your downfall, Duke Marlon!" The Duke's eyes widened when the person he assumed to be a female began to speak in a clearly male voice. Things only got worse when the cross dresser pulled off the blonde wig he had been wearing revealing jet black hair that was spiked over to his right side while the left side had been nearly shaven clean off.

"C-count Luic…Finia…!" It was hard for the Duke to get any other words out, the blood pooling out even more as he fell to his knees on the floor.

"You stole everything precious from me! Yufinia! My daughter! My land! My title!" The count was livid and proceeded to kick the Duke in the face to add injury to insult rather than the other way around. "So I disguised myself to end our reign of terror! I swore that since you took everything to me, I'd take the most precious thing anyone could have… Their life!" The black haired male turned and left the room, leaving the Duke to bleed out on his own.

Numerous actual women, all dressed in perverted harem uniforms then began to race past him, some spat on him and some made a bolt for the exit. None of them noticed the Duke crying and reaching out to them. Especially the last one to leave the room, a green haired one "Don't…! P-please…" He whimpered, it looked as if his mouth had finally shut down when she could see him attempting to form words but heard nothing coming out of it.

With nothing else left to be said, the woman left and the Duke was left by himself to die on the floor.

* * *

"You're a fucking asshole, Allen." Said a purple haired male with exactly the same voice and hairstyle as the Duke. He was nursing a rather large black eye. He was dressed in a black hooded jacket with golden trims, a navy blue t-shirt, sliver jeans held up by a black belt with a golden buckle and finally he wore grey combat boots that shot his height up from 5'11 to 6'1.

"So? What's new? You know me, Sat." Said his friend with exactly the same voice as the murderous count as well as the same hairstyle.

"You didn't have to kick me in the face! Where did it say that you could do that?" Sat, full name Sateriasis Marlon, wasn't the least bit happy. Numerous ways of murdering his asshole "friend" raced through his head.

"Right here!" Allen retorted by sticking up his middle finger and blowing a raspberry "The script dictated that I was to do whatever the Count would've done in that situation, so I imagine that he probably would've kicked that guy in the face!" Allen, full name Allen Avadonia Lucifinia, took unlimited joy in rubbing his vict-friend the wrong way. He sported an impish grin as he bounded in front of and posed ahead of Sateriasis "Anyway! I bet you enjoyed it, y'know, getting to be the debauched Duke, being around all of those girls~!"

"You have three seconds before I pound your face in." Sateriasis threatened his friend. Allen's hair was styled nearly exactly the same as if he were still in the Count persona, the only major difference being that some of the spikes were now drooped closer to his face, his emerald green eyes had noticeably sharp pupils to them. In terms of clothing he was wearing a low cut red t-shirt, a black jacket with a white hood and trims, white shorts which he always wore no matter the weather, something that made Sateriasis roll his eyes every time Allen tried to justify it. In terms of accessories he wore two golden rings on his left hand. On his right hand was a strange yellow mirror tattoo.

"Oh, Sat! You would never do such a thing! You're such an innocent soul and violence is totally out of your realm!" Allen melodramatically proclaimed as if he still hadn't stopped acting yet. "Then again, if I were the Duke instead of you the girls would have been hanging off of my shoulders out of love instead of having to act. I'm that irresistible!" He was reward for rolling in his ego was a blow to the back of the head from Sateriasis "What the hell was that for?!"

Sateriasis resisted the urge to roll his eyes, mainly because of risk of aggravating the injury that Allen had given him "Because you're being a prat again. Don't you have to go and be annoying somewhere else?"

Allen feigned harm as he looked down at an imaginary watch on his wrist "Not until four. In meantime I guess I'll have to do with you."

Sateriasis scowled, but if he was being honest, he wouldn't trade Allen for anyone else in the world. He may have despised his ego with every fibre of his soul and frequently wanted to punch him every time that he opened his mouth but it was those things that made their friendship so interesting to him. Call him a masochist but he secretly enjoyed the bickering and constant belittling, you never knew what was going to happen when Allen was around.

"Now if you don't mind me, I'm going to and watch tonight's duels in Link VRAINS. You're welcome to come and watch if you want, but I get the picture that you probably wouldn't like it." Link VRAINS was the latest craze in the dueling world, a network on which people could choose to duel in virtual reality, it was the brainchild of SOL technology and more specifically Allen's father who seemed to mention it nearly every time Sateriasis had met him. Sateriasis never really understood the allure of it all, the online world was fake after all, the bonds you made online never truly carried over into the real world and in the worst case scenario it could even lead to a dangerous encounter with some of the more unsavoury people in the world.

"Who's dueling? Maybe then I'll decide." However, despite not particularly liking the system it didn't mean that he wasn't going to rid if from his life. Duel Monsters was Duel Monsters after all, no matter how it was being played.

"Well it's the number one and number two ranked Charisma Duelists…" Ah, well, there goes that plan. Charisma Duelists to Sateriasis were a bunch of vapid attention seekers whom only cared about their rank which he saw as arbitrary as usually the best of the best weren't too bothered by popularity and most of the popularity had been gained through stupid people thinking they were good.

"Wait…" One of those Allen had mentioned was familiar to the purple haired male. Allen watched on anxiously as Sateriasis worked through the depths of his repressed memory. A cold sweat dripped down his neck when he saw Sateriasis' eyes sharpen "Isn't one of those Blue Angel?"

"Umm…Yeah…?"

"That fucking airhead! Why is she so popular?! All her deck is, is effect damage! It is a helmet deck, you don't need any skill to play! Have you seen her fans as well?! And that obnoxious fucking chant!" Allen could feel the heat radiating off of Sateriasis, he knew that Sateriasis often had a propensity to get annoyed whenever Blue Angel was mentioned, he didn't really know why this was the case so he tried to code it whenever he mentioned her to him, it never mattered and it often resulted in Allen getting jabbed in the ribs as he tried to calm his friend down.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Sat, calm down!" However, that would never stop Allen, no matter how many times he went to the hospital with broken ribs, he had to take it so that they weren't liable for getting fined for vandalism and property damage. Allen was 90% sure that Sateriasis at his worst constituted at least 500,000 yen in fines. "Remember last time?!" The spiky haired male shivered, that wasn't a time he ever wanted to think about again.

Sateriasis took a deep breath, remembering what had occurred that time too "Fine, just don't mention that bitch's name again. I'm guessing the other person is Go Onizuka?"

"Got it in one! Now, I don't know about you but I personally think that Go is one of those who truly deserves his position. His style may not be the most attractive or complex."

'_You got that right…' _Sateriasis retorted in his head knowing it to be pointless to challenge Allen in the middle of one of his soliloquies.

"But you have to say it's entertaining! Not many people use that kind of style nowadays, we're all so focused on OTKs that no one truly values their monsters anymore, they're expendable for the grand plan." Allen sighed "Sometimes I think that people like Go and I are the only ones left who value our cards as more than just assets…" He said glumly, his bottom lip sticking out in a pout.

"Oh, wise up!" Sateriasis replied callously "Now's not the time to go moaning about styles, if you do that not only are you going to miss the start of the duels, but I'm also going to miss an appointment."

That had Allen's eyes sharpen, previous depression instantly gone "Ah, that's right. Your "mysterious benefactor" who "pays you for jobs", is there something you ain't telling me, Sat?" He put air quotes around certain words and wriggled his eyebrows suggestively towards the purple haired male.

Sateriasis wasn't about to give him the light of day on that issue, flashing his hand up as he walked away "At least I'll have more success than you in the long run, if I recall correctly your record is 1 – 329, how you got that one to go along with you I don't know." He was already gone into the background by the time Allen's brain had processed the insult which had been thrown at him.

"I love sarcasm." Sateriasis muttered as he spied Allen's reaction "It hits people in their face but with words."

* * *

**(Link VRAINS, undefined location)**

While Link VRAINS was generally a place of joy with the overworld of it being a place where normal duelists could have their matches while also getting to enjoy the spectacles of the Charisma Duelists battling it out on the very changing ranking ladder. The underworld of VRAINS was something else entirely with numerous shady people and perverted dealings being undertaken by the lowest echelon of society.

"Please! Take it! I don't care! Let me go!" A scared male dressed in punk clothing scuttled along the ground on all fours from his assaulter. He had offered the assaulter literally everything but the clothes on his back, yet it didn't affect the aggressor at all.

At the snap of fingers the male found himself, no longer on the ground and a good distance away from his assaulter, but now face to face with that unsettling mask which had covered the culprit's face from the ungodly moment that they had made first contact "Do you want money? I can give you that! I can give you anything you want!"

The assaulter tutted and placed a finger on the male's head "You think you can bribe a Seraph like that? I don't need any of your worthless human money, all I seek is to embrace everything within my wings and see my duty to stop the tears of the unfortunate from streaming down their face. Just like you, my friend." The voice was remarkably soft spoken and evidently male. He was dressed in a long silver jacket that had a dark grey collar and black trims towards the end of it along with silver gloves on his hands. Underneath he was wearing a black and blue shirt with golden buttons. He was also wearing black trousers and had on silver boots. His hair was green and slicked back with one strand falling down the middle of his mask. One of the most noticeable features of his attire was the deep blue scarf that was draped across his shoulders, almost like a cape. The other noticeable feature was the white mask he kept on his face. Etched onto it was a rather unsettling smile that was a deep crimson red. "In fact, I'll be happy to let you go right now…"

"R-really?!" The other male's voice rose with hope and his eyes shone, maybe today wouldn't be the time to write his last will and testament.

"There's only one thing I have to take first…" That hope exploded instantly and despair the likes of which he had never felt overtook. The green haired male's fingers rose again "Heaven's time…" And the punk male vanished from the scene without a trace.

The masked avatar dusted off his scarf and ran his hands through his hair "What a poor and pitiful soul he had, people like that amaze me every time they appear, they act so tough but turn to mush the second you lay a finger on them. They don't deserve a Seraph, they don't have willpower strong enough, they are nothing."

"_You're being very rude there, Seraph."_ Came a voice within Seraph's ear which made him kneel to the ground upon the first spoken syllable _"That man didn't deserve that kind of treatment, you raised his hopes for your own sick amusement."_

"S-sorry, Sir!" Seraph replied, his voice cracking slightly but still remaining at the same soft level as it always was. "I-I-I…"

"_Hai~Za~ki-kun. Don't worry your head, if you got what I sent you out for then you're more than welcome to enjoy a little freedom every once in a while."_ That statement calmed Seraph immensely as he felt the weight of the world coming off of his shoulders. He breathed out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding.

"Thank you, Sir. Yes, I have retrieved it." Sitting in the palm of Seraph's hand was a black ball of data that was sparking and crackling whilst it orbited around his hand "It's a rowdy little thing, is this what desire looks like?"

"_Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to, Haizaki-kun."_ The voice reprimanded and Seraph immediately understood that he was to ask no further questions _"Now, I'm going to have to take my leave, leave it at the designated place and I'll collect it."_

"Yes, sir!" Seraph stood up and bowed respectfully, before his raised his fingers for the third time "Man Proposes, God disposes." And with a snap he was gone.

**(Meanwhile)**

Two people happened to be inhabiting a private room in the darkest part of the underworld. A place known to its owner and his contractors as Akuma no su.

The owner of this room had one emerald green eye and one royal purple eye. His hair was blue in colour while being short and spiky that shot out in multiple directions at the back to form an 'X' shape. His getup consisted of a jet black outfit that had zigzagging purple lines periodically crossing each other to form multiple symbols that only bare relevance to him, he was wearing grey combat boots and pure white gloves. Finally, on his belt there were numerous devices and tools. He was holding a wine glass in his right hand as he lounged across his seat "Apologies for not having any time to clean up this place, I got held up with things IRL." The person's speech was put through a voice modulator, making sure that no one could possibly gather who he was from the sound of his voice alone.

"Not a problem, Mammon." Said another voice, one that was calm and obscenely relaxed with an air of playfulness to it. The owner of this voice was wearing primarily a white yukata with a somber purple-coloured haori. His hair was a shining silver that was neck length and styled over his left eye while his visible right eye was a bright amber in its colour. As he lounged across the red velvet couch, he brought up his showing black sandals with a red strap. He placed a long golden pipe to his lips and puffed out a billow of smoke. "I'm not one to care for such things."

Mammon laughed, swirling the red liquid in the wine glass between his fingers "Do you ever think that you're maybe too lackadaisical, Kitgama?" He threw back the liquid and made a murmur of satisfaction before throwing a glance at the relaxed features of his companion.

"No such thing as too relaxed, such a thing as too stressed though. People need to appreciate what's around them instead of right in front of them." Kitgama replied, letting the pipe hang in between his fingers "By chance, have you heard of Playmaker, my friend?"

The spiky haired male scoffed, glancing down to find his glass empty "That guy? Wasn't he called Unknown for a while or something like that?"

"That's right, he's an enigma of the system, I'll admit that not even yours truly knows that much about him. I've seen him peruse about the place every once in a while but never spoken to him." That comment made Mammon raise an eyebrow, that wasn't the kind of thing that Kitgama would readily admit too. The amber eyed male took great pride in his information collecting ability, he wasn't considered to be the ultimate source of knowledge for nothing. "But I do know one thing about him. He calls himself "The Emissary of Revenge" who will crush all that oppose him on his quest for "Justice." If you ask me that screams of someone who never grew up and is obsessed over something from their childhood."

Another glass made its way into Mammon's awaiting fingers with him throwing it back instantly after touching it "Hmm, sounds about right. But why did you bring him up? He doesn't sound like much of a bother."

Kitgama chuckled sitting up straight and moving a glowing golden card across the table between the two of them "Well, you may want to inform your contractors that he's after one group of people in particular."

"You mean?" Mammon asked and Kitgama nodded, making the former grin in anticipation. "Well, that makes it far more interesting then."

"That's right, which is I'm going to do some more digging into him. He's got this strange air about him. If I were to compare him to something, he'd be like that car crash that you know someone is horribly injured but you can't look away from it as it has this enticing pull into it." Kitgama's slitted eyes locked with Mammon's mismatched ones "The issue with this whole thing is that he's ruthless in his anonymity, every night that I've gone to check his access logs they've been wiped clean. He's practically untraceable."

"Computer? Hahahaha!" Mammon laughed whilst he finished off his second glass "Finally decided to join the real world, did ya?!"

Kitgama scowled, pulling out a purple fan with flower patters adorning it from his yukata and using it to hide the unbefitting scowl from his associate "You've been drinking too much, Mammon. Even I can use a computer in this digital world."

"Did it burst into flames?! Keheheh!" Mammon cackled madly, much to his associate's disdain "And by the by, it's all virtual as you should know, I can't get drunk here."

"I wouldn't bet against you to find a way." Kitgama sneered as Mammon calmed down and took the card into his hand "That's what I have on Playmaker so far, I suggest that you inform your contractors as soon as possible to make sure you don't get into any tricky situation."

Mammon grinned wildly as his pupils diluted "I will do so. I didn't realise you cared so much about me and the rest of us."

The silver haired male rolled his eyes and scowled again "Don't get the wrong idea, I don't very much care what happens to you or them." He closed the fan and pointed it at Mammon's face "This is purely a business related thing, you're good business and this place is nice. Consider this as a token of my thanks for letting me in here."

"I see, I'll be going to see them now." Mammon stood up, the glass which coated the floor making it seem like something rather violent had occurred crunched under his feet with each step he took.

"Oh and by the by, do be careful about SOL Technologies. They're really heightening the security of the network, apparently they're going to be doing a system wide search soon and they won't take too kindly to people like you turning up." Mammon didn't bother listening to his acquaintance as he soon dissolved into cerulean pixels leaving Kitgama as the only one in the server.

Said male smirked, taking puff from the pipe "An enigma wrapped in a mystery, a person for which there is no explanation. I love it…~"

* * *

After leaving the server Mammon appeared on one of the rooftops in the main suburban area of the network. If there was one thing that he never understood it was why SOL and the people in charge of the design made the place look so stereotypically bland or flashy. He could swear that whoever had put the Eiffel tower must have been on something that day and the superiors hadn't caught them until it was too late.

Luckily for him though, SOL did indeed do the smart thing and decided to make multiple servers that people could log into if they didn't like the main server. Personally speaking, Mammon preferred his own server of course considering that very few people actually knew it existed. Those being Kitgama, the person whom had gifted him the server and one more person that the spiky haired male was heavily indebted too.

That last person was the reason he still had a livelihood to this day and he'd be damned if he wouldn't help that person in their quest! No one was going to stop him, even if his body was burned to ashes! Even if he was thrown back into that hellish place and subject to those eldritch devices which were dropped into his chamber every time he lost!

"You there!" Came a voice behind him making him break off his reveries and turn to face his unceremonious intruder.

"Yes, what do you want?" Even through the modulation one could easily tell the disdain and hatred that the voice possessed.

"You're Mammon aren't you?" The individual asked his own question completely ignoring Mammon's one.

"Depends. Who am I talking to?" The individual in question was clad in a blue uniform that had his collar flipped up and pressed against his neck. His uniform consisted of a pair of black trousers, a royal blue jacket that its collar upturned and what appeared to be a symbol of sorts. Furthermore he was wearing brown combat boots and concealed his face via a mask. His hair was a stark white and incredibly messy with some of it even drooping over the mask whilst the rest was a mess on the top of his head.

"I gather you're a bounty hunter yourself?" Mammon nodded, not really too interested in the situation, he had far better things to be doing and if this was all that was going to happen then he supposed it was time to fulfil that obligation "You may well be surprised to know that I'm one myself, I work for SOL Technologies you see, and they're very interested in you."

"I guess my reputation proceeds me if they are interested in me. May I ask who exactly you are?"

"My name is Colt." He said with a tone flat enough to be considered 2D.

"To answer your starting question, I am indeed the person you are looking for but now I want the answer to my question what do you want?"

"You see SOL have tasked me to hunt down and defeat any troublemakers in the system and your name was at the head of the list." Colt revealed the cobalt blue disk that was attached to his arm.

"You've come to challenge me then in layman's terms." Colt nodded at Mammon's analogy. "Well then! So be it!" He revealed his own disk.

"**Duel!"** The two hunters shouted beginning the Master Duel.

* * *

Colt's LP: 4000 Mammon's LP: 4000 Cards x5

**Turn 1**

"I'll be going first if you don't mind!" Mammon said as five holographic cards appeared floating in the air before him, 2 monsters, 2 spells and a trap.

"I begin by activating the continuous spell **Network Corruption!**" The card art depicted a string of binary text which was beginning to turn into a bunch of indecipherable gibberish, in the shadows, two monsters could be seen supposedly the ones causing the corruption. One of them was a grinning imp while the other was a devilish dragon.

"Network Corruption grants me the ability to once per turn add one of my level four or lower 'corruption' monsters to my hand and all I have to do to sustain this ability is pay five hundred life points on my standby phases!" He searched through the cards available to him, finally settling on one after a while.

"I add to my hand the level 2 monster **Corruption Gear! **Now since neither of us control a monster I can summon this monster from my hand! Come on out level 5 **Greedy Corruption Demon!**"

Greedy Corruption Demon was a maniacal hell spawn for lack of a better term. It had blood red wings, horns and pointed tail that contrasted with his black scaly skin. Razor sharp teeth were visible when the creature opened its mouth. Its eyes had an unnatural yellow glow to them, usually striking fear into Mammon's opponent.

**Greedy Corruption Demon, Level 5, Fiend, Effect, DARK** (**2500/**1300)

"Now there is a great cost to this bonus, since I summoned him this way one thousand of his attack points are rendered effectively null and void." A black mist formed over the top of the demon and drained the thousand points away.

Greedy Corruption Demon's ATK: **2500 - 1500**

"What was the point in summoning him if he's just going to be weakened?" Colt was unable to comprehend Mammon's line of reasoning for weakening his own monster, while the blue haired duelist in question merely tutted at his opposite number.

"You'll find out right now! Left unchecked corruption can ravage a system, destroying countless hours of work and decades of progress! Using his effect from my hand I summon my **Corruption Gear** to the field!"

Corruption Gear was an old rusted cog that appeared to have suffered from heavy metal fatigue and corrosion as bits of it could be seen falling off.

**Corruption Gear Level 2, Fiend, DARK, Effect**(0/**1000**)

"Corruption Gear can be summoned to my side of the field so long as another corruption monster is present and said monster has attack below 2000." Mammon explained trying his hardest not to burst out laughing so as not to look insane.

"That's why you summoned your demon first, you used his weakness to your advantage. Not bad if I do say so myself." Colt was becoming more and more interested in his target by the second.

"Why thank you! But I'm not done just yet! I use my normal summon for the turn to summon forth **Paladin of Corruption!**"

This monster was a knight in shining armour…If you discount the half of the body that was covered by a black oozing sludge, it also had a tattered red cape that swung over the right side of its body. The sword it wielded was tarnished, looking like it too had fallen victim to corrosion.

**Paladin of Corruption, Level 4, Fiend, DARK, Effect** (**1600**/1200)

Mammon ginned wildly causing Colt to become slightly concerned "Now! Appear the corrupted circuit that destroys all!" Mammon continued as he appeared in the link square "Arrowheads confirmed! The summoning conditions are three 'Corruption' monsters! I set Paladin of Corruption, Greedy Corruption Demon and Corruption Gear into the link markers!" The three monsters transformed into black electricity jolts.

"Link summon! Link 3! **Essence of Greed - Corruption Dragon**!"

The utterance of the name had Colt's eyes widening in realisation _'No way! He's one of us?! That can't be right! That's simply not possible! Why is he working with them of all people?!'_

Mammon's ace was massive, it could easily be seen a mile away which it was by a frog avatar and a pigeon one that clutched the frog tightly in its talons.

"I don't think anything else is happening." The pigeon spoke "Playmaker's done with that knight and those two were the only ones online."

"Don't worry about it! I'm certain our big break is just around the corner!" The frog said with a certain fire about him.

"As if! I mean we're not just going to go round this corner and see the most terrifying dragon known to man!"

Cue Sod's law as the two passed the last building on the block and came into view of Corruption Dragon.

"Oh my GOD!" The pigeon screamed, startled by Mammon's dragon, so badly taken back that he nearly lost his grip upon his frog companion.

Corruption Dragon was covered with black and blue scaly armour that stood on two clawed feet, it had four wings on its back, the top two were blue and bigger than the lower set of black ones, its head was covered with four horns two on its forehead and the remaining two was placed underneath its chin. The eyes were over a sliver colour that like GCD had an unnatural glow to them. It had a tail that split into two at the end with each ending have detailed golden tip.

**Essence of Greed - Corruption Dragon, Link 3, Dragon, Dark**_,_ **Effect**(**2400**) **Markers: Top, Bottom Left, Bottom Right**.

"Isn't she just wonderful?" Mammon said looking up in twisted glee at his dragon.

'_This guy's mental…'_ Colt thought growing ever more disturbed by Mammon.

"Unfortunately since this is the first turn, I can't attack and have no other choice than to delay the inevitable, I place one card facedown and pass it off to you my fellow hunter."

**Turn 2**

"I have to finish this before it gets any worse…" Colt muttered under his breath as he brought his hand over to draw. "I draw!"

"To start with a play my **Enigma Code **spell card!" The card art was that of an infamous code used during the times of a dire war "Now unlike your card, this is a one for one, with it I can add any monster in my deck that has 2000 or lower attack points."

"Basically inferior in layman's terms." Mammon commented uninterested

"I now summon **Codecracker Signal Operator!**" The monster that appeared was a military man that had an earpiece in his ear and was carrying on him a radio that was spurting out static that was periodically interrupted by a stream of numbers.

**Codecracker Signal Operator, level 4, Warrior, EARTH, Effect**_ (_**1600**/400)

"By sending one card in my hand to the graveyard I can activate Signal Operator's ability!" The monster leaned in closer to the radio and began to tune it "Signal Operator can call up another Codecracker in my hand to the field of battle!"

"Please welcome **Codecracker Drone!**"

A small black circular drone began to fly across Colt's field.

**Codecracker Drone, Level 1, Machine, EARTH, Effect (**0/**200)**

"What could that thing do except pester me?" Mammon said miffed at the constant droning of the turboprops as it began to fly over him.

"Don't jump the gun. I activate his effect!" The drone then shot a beam of code at Mammon's disk "I get to send the top three cards of your deck to the graveyard and for every monster sent there you take 500 points of damage!"

The top three cards of the blue haired hunter's deck was shown, it consisted of two monsters and one trap card.

"You have two monsters, so that means you'll be taking 1000 points of damage!" The drone opened up its Bombay doors and let loose a small yet powerful payload that obliterated the area surrounding where Mammon stood.

'_That should've knocked him out of commission…' _But as the smoke cleared the opposite was clear and all Colt was able to do was gasp.

"You really thought that'd be enough to beat me?" Mammon said with the twisted look still not leaving his face. Despite the fact that he was now precariously perched on the edge of the roof top, having been blown back by the force.

Mammon's LP: **4000 – 3000**

'_Damnit!'_ Colt thought, he then looked down at his hand to see if there was any way he could get rid of Corruption Dragon.

"I place two cards facedown and end my turn." Colt said unable to think his way out of the situation just yet.

**Turn 3**

"Then the pleasure is all mine!" Mammon said as he smirked when he realized what he had just drawn.

"Your spell card's effect activates here!" Colt shouted "You lose 500 life points!"

Mammon's LP: **3000 – 2500**

"I play **Corrupted Twin Twister!**" This card depicted art very similar to the original twin twister but in the background Corruption Dragon's eyes could be seen and a dark claw was emerging, that made contact with the second twister turning some of it black.

"Much like the original Twin Twister to activate this card I first must send one card from my hand to the graveyard but here's where the differences start. First I destroy one spell card on my field!" Network Corruption burst into particles as Mammon continued to explain this cards effect "Then one of your facedowns is destroyed…I think the left will be my target!"

Colt's trap flipped face up and was shattered almost instantly.

"Finally since the card I sent to the graveyard was a monster card I get to destroy one of your monsters! This drone's annoyed me long enough!" The drone was ripped from the air and sent crashing back down to earth.

"Battle! Corruption Dragon! Attack Codecracker Signal Operator! Judgment of Corruption!" Corruption Dragon let loose a stream of black electrical jolts that smashed hard into Colt's monster obliterating it in the process.

Colt's LP: **4000 – 3200**

"Corruption Dragon's effect! When it destroys a monster it allows me to summon it to one of the zones my link monster points to," Out of a purple vortex Signal Operator appeared but this time it was drenched in sludge and had the occasional spasm. "Corruption Dragon gains attack points equal to the levels of the monsters linked it x200!"

Corruption Dragon's ATK: **2400 – 3200**

"Do you want to know the best part Colt?" Mammon asked with a sly look on his face "I can use your own monster to attack you!"

"What!" Colt shouted.

"Signal Operator bend to my corrupted will! Attack your master directly!" The force and sheer ferocity of the strike launched Colt skidding across the roof on his back.

Colt's LP: **3200 – 1600**

"Can you still stand? I'd be deeply disheartened if we were unable to finish this match." Mammon said in mock sadness with Colt still laden to the ground.

When Colt didn't respond Mammon took matters into his own hands "Akutoku no Jajjimento! I activate the last card in my hand, the spell **Degradation of Corruption!**" The card showed purer versions of Corruption Dragon and multiple other monsters slowly decaying into a vat of black acid.

"This card deals you damage 600 points of damage for each monster in my field!" The card glowed a bright blue as it began to collate energy "This should shock you back into action!" The resulting strike fiercely electrocuted Colt's body as an ear splitting scream could be heard.

Colt's LP: **1600 – 400**

Colt began to stagger back onto equal footing with his clothes still smoking from the previous assault.

"_Colt! We're taking you out of there."_ Came a voice in Colt's hidden earpiece _"You've sustained too much damage and we can't afford to lose you."_

The white haired hunter who was just barely conscious was far too weak to resist the will of his employers, he nodded having suffered what can only be considered abject defeat. He didn't want to leave. Not when he had just found another one like him after ten long years on his crusade to find the one who had tortured the seven of them.

He shakily reached out his hand to the surprised Mammon.

However, before he could get anywhere, he began to glow a bright blue before vanishing right in front of the now stunned Mammon. Handing the Corruption duelist the victory but not the one he desired.

"Damnit!" Mammon yelled pulling at his hair, snarling menacingly like a rabid animal for a while as his anger got the best of him "How dare he! How dare SOL! Who the hell do you think you are?! Criminals! Reprobates! Wretches! I haven't forgotten what you've done! One day! Mark my words! One day! You'll pay! You'll pay for it all!"

The rabid frenzy he had worked himself into began to die down. He realised just how off the rails he had gotten in such a short period of time. It frightened him. "What the hell was that?" He moved his hands across his face and then took the glove on his right hand off, staring at his palm and at the intricately crafted tattoo on his hand. That thing had first appeared ten years ago and has plagued his existence ever since "Is this your doing?" He quickly remembered the possibility of still being watched by SOL and shoved the glove back on.

He said nothing else as he vanished from the awaiting eye of the Security Manager of SOL Technologies, he was a fair skinned young man of twenty-six with blue and teal hair and pink eyes. He wore a suit which consisted of a blue coat with a darker one underneath, a white shirt, and a black tie. He also sported blue trousers and black shoes. He muttered quietly as he saw Mammon depart "Who are you really…?"

* * *

**(Next day)**

Sateriasis' apartment was his safe haven from the rest of the world. For a brief moment of respite Sateriasis was allowed to forget his troubles and just focus on the life he should have been living instead of the one that he did. It's not every day that you come across an orphaned 16 year old who is an online mercenary and a budding actor in real life, sometimes he wished that he was one of those faceless grey blobs that would blend into the background and live an unassuming life.

However, this was the life that Providence had given him, since that fateful day that he first woke up in that dark room this was the path his life was destined for. That didn't mean though that he wasn't going to live a life in the meantime.

His room was the prime example of this. Despite being rather small in size, it showed that he was more than what those people wanted him to be. His walls were adorned with numerous posters of one singular person, it was that of an 18 year old male with an incredibly handsome, beautiful face. He had spiky messy blond hair with his bangs covering the top right side of his face. His eyes were light blue. And he was wearing silver earrings on both ears. In terms of attire he wore a long sleeve black shirt that had circles in the front and black bordering the top and bottom which he wore with a pink jacket with short sleeves. He wore blue jeans and also had a necklace around his neck and bracelets on his left arm. In large bold letters it said 'STARGAZER' underneath the person.

No. It wasn't stalker like to have so many posters of someone on your wall. Sateriasis wasn't a creep, he was just a simple fan. Stargazer wasn't like many traditional celebrities nowadays that earned their fame through Link VRAINS. Instead he was focused on the musical side, a traditional idol who sang to lift the sadness of others and to see the _real world_ adulation of his fans. No one knew too much about where he came from or who he was beyond his persona, but many were satisfied by his existence. Sateriasis included. Although he would never brazenly admit that.

Next was something he had grown fond of alongside Allen. When the spiky haired male first pulled him into the acting profession he had wanted to deck him then and there and hide his body at the bottom of a river before dumping toxic waste in it so no one would ever dare go and find it. However, for some reason the producers of anything he went to fell in love with his performance. He didn't know why. Fate works in mysterious ways and this was certainly one of them. He hadn't even read the script half the time and mainly adlibbed it, how he got where he was, was astounding.

The roles he also ended up playing tended to be evil ones, something he considered painfully ironic. Especially when half of the time Allen ends up as the hero and gets to kick the shit out of him during the big climax. Honestly, he found himself enjoying it more and more every passing day, the acting, not the pain.

"_Youkoso __paradiso__, amoru no rakuen. Amor tte ai no koto sa tokimeku suteki, daro? Furuete iru nara dakishimete ageru. Sou sa shinpai shinai de. Kawaii chou ni nari habatakou!"_

Sateriasis woke to the sound of his ringing phone. "Sweet death take me now…!" Sateriasis wasn't a morning person at all, he hated having to get up this early. Especially after having had the night in VRAINS he had.

That's right, Sateriasis Marlon was known in Link VRAINS as the owner of Akuma no su and the feared bounty hunter Mammon. And he was very pissed off that Colt had ran away from defeat like that, SOL Technologies would have to pay for depriving him of his contract and payment. Despite being a bounty hunter the purple haired male wasn't exactly an open market, for some reason unbeknownst to the darker side of Link VRAINS he only ever under took work from organisation known as the Knights of Hanoi. They wouldn't understand his reasoning for that even if he explained it in painful detail.

Cantankerously he rolled out of bed and pulled the phone to his ear "What do you want?!" He really didn't care who was on the other end of the line, he was too tired to act as something he wasn't.

"Is that really the tone you want to take on with your contractor, Sateriasis?" Said individual was now instantly regretting that decision.

"Apologies, I'm only just up you see and well… I… Uh…." Sateriasis for once in his life had been robbed of his words, usually there was always some snarky remark or smart ass comment hidden within him but now that skill had seemingly faded from him.

The person on the other end of the line chuckled softly. His voice a deep baritone. "Ah, water under the bridge. I'm only calling you now to notify you that the payment for your next mission has already been made. I'll send Spectre to hand it to you later."

Sateriasis breathed a sigh of relief "Thank the lord… Thank you… I don't know what I'd do without you, Ryoken."

The voice, now revealed to be someone called Ryoken, chuckled again "It is I that wouldn't know what do without you, your skills are indispensable to the mission the Knights of Hanoi seek to complete."

"I see…" The long haired male muttered before he then gazed upon the time from his laptop's monitor "Shit!" He cursed loudly "Sorry, I have to go!" He didn't even wait for the reply before shutting the connection down.

"Why can't these things start later?! Preferably two in the afternoon!" In a flurry he shoved the uniform on to his new school. Den Academy. He'd prefer not to tell anyone what had happened at his previous school

**(Den Academy)**

When Sateriasis had arrived, promptly 20 minutes late as was very usual, he hadn't previously been nicknamed the "Time Lord" by others for no reason, he been told by the receptionist to go and see the student council President in order to find his class and get settled in. He was expecting the prototypical nerdish honour student character. Certainly not who was standing before him now.

The student council President had shortish snow white hair that was styled in such a way that the majority often fell on his right shoulder while the left side was drooping and upon closer inspection one could see that it was waterlogged. He had dull yellow eyes that store blankly into the background, almost as if he wasn't on the same planet as the rest of humanity. His school uniform was generally the same as the rest but for some odd reason the tie was wrapped around his neck instead of his collar. A pair of red swimming goggles which acted as a headband adorned his head. Before he spoke he yawned "Um, apologies for the appearance but I guess it can't be helped."

'_Oh sure, not like you could fix half your issues in five minutes!'_ Sateriasis may not have been one for caring about his appearance, that had always been his father's thing, but he knew that he couldn't go around looking like this.

"Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you. Even if you are 20 minutes overdue." Sateriasis growled, not wanting him to bring that up again "I'm Nosakura Acedia, the Student Council President as you should have been told by now, I know that you'll have your doubts about me."

'_No shit, Sherlock.' _Sateriasis rolled his eyes, barely able to internalise his sarcasm.

Nosakura's eyes then turned deadly "But I'm going to get this out here. I don't care what you think of me, your opinion on me is invalid, I am who I am and no one person in this world is going to change who I am. I am me and that's all there is too it." He paused as he turned around "Follow me, I have to get this out of the way before I can get back to what I really want to do."

Sateriasis followed with a frown on his face, _'What a lovely person, straight up telling me that he'd rather be somewhere else now. At least he's honest enough to admit that…'_

"So what's your name? Just in case I have to speak to you again for whatever reason." Nosakura drawled lazily, yawning once more "Y'know, duties and all that nonsense…"

"Sateriasis Marlon." The purpled haired male replied, his distaste for the President growing by the second.

"Eww, that's long and hard to pronounce, did your parents hate you?" Nosakura was totally oblivious to the growing rage of the person he had just insulted; either that or he was being deliberately provocative.

"At least they taught me how to dress." Sateriasis enjoyed seeing the white haired male scowl. He didn't know why but he felt an immediate dislike from the moment he had laid eyes on Nosakura, that had only gotten worse from the moment he had opened his mouth. One could call it hate at first sight.

Nosakura stopped on dime and shoved his face in front of Sateriasis, scanning up and down his body "You're a weakling, I can see it. Let me tell you something, Satyriasis, I don't appreciate being in the same breathing space as someone who abandoned their fangs long ago. Only the bad people in this world will survive."

The purple haired male deliberately ignored the intentional mispronunciation of his name in favour of repeating what Nosakura had done to him moments prior. "When did we get to the point of discussing philosophies? But since we're on the topic, why the hell not? I have this belief that people who attack the most and frequently use the same insults over and over again are the ones who believe that about themselves. In Layman's terms, you call me a weakling? You probably think that about yourself." Sateriasis really had to thank Allen for all the practice when it came to arguments, having a naturally stubborn friend who would never admit he was wrong had allowed him to pick up a few tricks of the trade.

The white haired male turned away again, clicking his tongue in annoyance "Tch, you're a troublesome one I can already tell. Don't get the wrong idea about me, Satyriasis, I'm the Student Council President for a reason. I may dress like I just got out of bed a few moments ago but a wolf in sheep's clothing is a dangerous thing." He then muttered something quietly under his breath "Jesus Christ, it's fucking _him_ all over again."

They walked on in silence after that for a while, Sateriasis took his mind of that confrontation by recounting what had happened the night prior. He knew that he had won that duel fair and square and that SOL had pulled a dirty trick on him by disconnecting Colt before he could deal the finishing blow. Maybe he'd get Allen to have a word with his dad about what had went down, Allen's dad had always been at loggerheads with the Security Department which was run by Akira Zaizen and so the red eyed bounty hunter was pretty certain that he wouldn't mind divulging some of the more shady methods employed.

His reverie was interrupted by a lazy drawl from Nosakura "So~ what do you like to do in your free time?"

"Excuse me?" Sateriasis replied, not ready for small talk after what had transpired between them.

"Y'know hobby, shit you do when you get bored. It's not a hard question." Nosakura replied with a roll of his eyes, intensifying Sateriasis' growing hatred of the President.

Nevertheless he responded "I act in a small group." His eyes started to soften slightly "We're not well known but we love what we do. Usually we preform stories of deception, tragedy and betrayal. I'm often the bad guy." He then gestured to the black eye which wasn't showing any sign of going away any time soon "Hence this."

Nosakura made a concurrent noise, slouching as he walked away. "What about you then?" Sateriasis asked.

The yellow eyed teen flipped around, his face dumbfounded as if Sateriasis was supposed to be some kind of mind reader. He pulled at the goggles on his forehead "I'm a swimmer, dipshit. Is there something in your eyes? You best get to know my name, I'll be on top of the world soon." His eyes appeared to turn a brilliant gold as he spoke.

'_Wonderful, another ego the size of Japan. I thought Allen was bad enough.'_ Sateriasis pinched the bridge of his nose, not quite ready to have to listen to another ego trip after hearing three from Allen yesterday.

When Sateriasis was about to respond the two of them heard a loud crash emanate from one of the doors. As he looked at the name across it which read "Duel Club" he noticed Nosakura acquainting his face with the palm of his hand "Don't bother with those lot." He heard the President mutter "They're a waste of your time, I try my best to make sure that I never make contact with any one of them within a ten foot radius. They're a bunch of sad no lifers that would rather gossip about how cool Link VRAINS is than actually study or better themselves in the real world."

"Have you ever duelled?" Sateriasis asked innocently, he could gather from the tone and overtly hateful selection of words that Nosakura likely didn't think very highly of duelling or Link VRAINS in general.

True to form Nosakura scoffed "I used to, however, I've since outgrown such a childish game. I learned that what goes on in the land of make believe is of no relevance to your actual breathing life. In Layman's terms it's a fucking waste of time."

'_Huh, a swimmer's body and a sailor's mouth…'_ Sateriasis inwardly laughed. He already hated this guy to his core but he couldn't deny he was getting some form of sick amusement in seeing the numerous faces he could pull, the rouge idea of playing with how angry he could make the other was running through his mind.

But he couldn't let that desire run wild because Nosakura had stopped by, and was presently knocking on a door. When he didn't receive a reply, he forced it open anyway "You. In. Now." Words couldn't describe how much he wanted to turn that bastard's face into a bloody pull, but Sateriasis figured that would probably land in him in hot water with the Principal and that wasn't something he desired on his first day.

The teacher by this point had noticed the arrival of both the President and the new student, he smiled "Ah! Acedia-kun, it's pleasure to see you, who's that with you. A new student per chance?"

'_No, I'm here because I thought I'd do it for the hell of it…'_ Sateriasis pinched the bridge of his nose, whilst Nosakura appeared to flip a switch with his posture straightening up.

"Indeed, I've just been telling him about how revered this academy is as an institute of learning and went over a bit of how the school is laid out." Nosakura replied, his voice different from the sneering asshole that Sateriasis had met. That sounded like the voice of someone whom was actually supposed to be in this role.

"Excellent, now, would you like to come to front, young man?" Sateriasis did as he was told and descended the stairs to the front of the class. Watching Nosakura smirk and then leave when all eyes were off of him.

The purple haired male store round the class for a bit, all of them looking varying shades of disinterested, one of them even had the audacity to fall asleep. Regardless, he spoke clearly and loudly "Greetings. My name is Sateriasis Marlon, I may only be a recent transfer to this school but I hope that I can fit in with you quickly."

He looked at the teacher who smiled back at him "Thank you, Marlon-kun, you can take a seat now." Sateriasis spied an empty seat and took it, just happening to choose the same row as the sleeping individual he had noticed moments earlier.

And having used all of his willpower to have stayed wake for this long, he promptly lay his head on the desk and was out cold for the remainder of the lesson.

**(Undiscernible location)**

"Oh wow, this is strange. Why is one of them working with the Knights of Hanoi and why is the other with SOL? So strange." The voice paused for a minute as they collected their thoughts "Regardless, it doesn't matter what organisation they're a part of, they'll be drawn together." Whomever the voice belonged to their feet could be heard moving heavily across the ground and metal reverberated around the place like the feet were caught in shackles "It so happens that they both have those cards, just like the others. I wonder what it would be like to have them all in one place? I know all their secrets after all. The manifestation of one's soul, cruel, cruel Fortuna. I'll enjoy watching this sordid game play out."

"Rota fatum, volvit!"

* * *

**A/N: And here it is, my attempt at reviving this story from the pits of hell that I cast into. Something I have to say is that the story will be much different this time round. With the last chapter of the original story I made it clear that I despised season 2 of Vrains and personally, I wasn't that much a fan of season 1 to begin with. The reason I wrote the story was because I was interested by the concepts and plot line so to see that go to shit made me rethink this whole story. As a result this story is going to be heavily AU after a while.**

**The duel in this chapter only has very minor differences compared to the original one but I decided that the first chapter would be used to focus more individual characters rather than jump straight into the plot.**

**I've got nothing else to say so except to leave a review if you wish and tell me what I can do to improve upon it.**

**See you, whenever the next chapter is out. Sometime in June I guess.**


	2. Chapter 2

"_Perfect world this, Utopia that, society is tainted what. Honest to god, these people have some issues if they believe in that bullshit. Let me tell you why I hate these people above all else, utopia seekers are predicated ultimately on the belief that what they desire is ultimately desirable for everyone else in society. This simply couldn't be any further from the truth, people are individuals and as such they will have individual beliefs and opinions which are incompatible with other people's desires. You don't think that people have tried to create Utopia before? What do you think all that shit about a master race and people's community was? I have, and will never, submit myself to such an errant belief, for I have spoken to this kind of people one too many times."_

"_Now, don't take away that I think of myself as better than them. In fact, I'm so much worse than them. The ultimate goal of utopia is the creation of a perfect society where everyone gets along and everything is all sunshine and rainbows. However, that gets boring, nothing interesting happens. It's all peace and safety. Come on! Peace and safety, tranquil, carefree, are you shitting me?! They belong to the trash who've given up from being human! Humanity was made to be perfect, if one were to take the story of Eden as the truth, however, it should be noted that when they finally gained free will they were kicked out due to imperfections. Up until the apple was bitten there was no such thing as humanity, only less divine angels, but we became human the minute God cast them out of Eden. Why do I hate Utopia seekers? Simple, they want to turns us back to before that event, many people who seek Utopia are eventually corrupted by a God complex and will instead turn their supposed Utopia into a Dystopia. Humanity is made to be imperfect, that why it is interesting, death and despair, madness and insanity, all of it is what makes us human! And my desire is what makes me ascendant above everyone I've met. Desire, desire, beautiful dark desire!"_

"_As a race it is only natural for us to want to what is best for us. There was once when I was younger that I thought this wasn't the case, however, I saw that everything seemed so terribly gloomy wherever I was. I thought that I'd have a go at looking at the world the other way up. But it turns to be just the same after all. The common man is just as greedy as the rich man, doesn't matter that the reason behind it is different, the outcome is always the same because both of these men desire to become rich."_

"So… Have you figured it out yet?" A voice spoke coinciding with the sound of a liquid being poured into a small, flat, saucer like cup. The person took a sip and then placed it back down "Hmm, still not quite right yet."

"Maybe, although I don't want to jump the gun just yet. Every scenario has to run its course before I can discount it. Whatever is left, however improbable, must be the cause." A pipe was placed down, some smoke still rising from it.

"Acceptable. I understand that no stone must be left unturned, but we must figure this out soon, I don't want those leeches to get to them before we do." Once more, the original voice was followed by another sound, this time of a pair of nail clippers. "They've been growing more often recently, I only cut them a day ago."

"Keh, what did I tell you about being stressed? It does weird things to your body." The other voice chuckled, brushing some hair back behind their ear.

"Tch." The original voice clicked their tongue in annoyance "Not everyone can just laze about like you, have you ever worried about anything in your life?"

"And why would I tell you that?" The other replied instantaneously to a growl. "Hey! I'm kidding, don't get so uppity! But if you're really so curious, my dear friend, there was one thing I was able to deduce by visiting that place you mentioned."

The other voice quietened down as if they were either thinking about how to properly respond or focusing in on their nails "And what would that be?"

"It wasn't much, whoever did operate there was very careful which is why I found this particularly interesting." A slip of paper was slid across to the other person. The other's breath hitching as they read what was on it "I think you just as much as I do what this means."

"Indeed."

* * *

**(School)**

Sateriasis was still sleeping peacefully, his mind adrift in a land where everything in his life was perfect and idyllic as was common of most people. He smiled sleepily whenever a certain pair of people made their way into his dream again. A tall man with royal purple eyes and dark navy blue hair that wasn't too dissimilar from his avatar's hair colour, he looked down fondly at Sateriasis. Next to him was a young girl, about two or so years younger than, she had a happy smile on her face, her green hair bouncing up and down along with her. It made the purple haired male so happy, it didn't matter that none of this was real, he just wanted to reach out and hug them.

However…

***Bang!***

He was woken by the slamming of a book on the desk next to him and the sneering voice of Nosakura Acedia whom was leering over the top of his prone form "Oi, Satyriasis, are you going to lay there all day?"

Sateriasis nodded groggily not speaking because that took effort he didn't want to give. Usually he would've strangled anyone who dared to disturb his peace and tranquillity however, this guy deserved something far worse. Something more drawn out. He wanted to see this white haired asshole suffer. The long haired teen wondered if there was something he could use in the near future for his plans.

"Lazy fucker." Nosakura scoffed. Wanting to look anywhere else but Nosakura's face, Sateriasis was surprised to see that the class room was totally barren, no teacher, no students other than himself and Nosakura and no trace that anyone was there apart from some stain on the ground next to him and the sleeping form of another student. "Oh, I forgot to mention, but class ended about an hour and a half ago, you missed lunch too." Happy couldn't begin to describe how the white haired male sounded as he picked his book back up and started reading.

"What?! How long have you been here for?" Sateriasis, on the other hand, couldn't sound anything but angry even if he tried.

Nosakura didn't lift his eyes from the page and hummed "Hmm, probably about an hour ago when my class ended. Next you'll be asking "Why are you here?" Initially I came here because I thought that it would be empty and that it would be the best place for me to eat lunch and also read. When I came I saw that you were in here, at first I considered waking you up but then I thought that maybe you'd learn not to be such an ass if I let you sleep, sometimes the groggiest and grumpiest people are poor sleepers and all they need is a good nap to keep them right in the head." Nothing about Nosakura's tone or apparent concern was genuine, Sateriasis didn't need to be a genius to see through the Student Council President's shitty excuses "I woke you up because I thought it cruel to let you miss the rest of the day though. Plus, it'd reflect poorly on the Student Council and me in particular if the new student were to do that. Also, you're going to be thinking "Why didn't the teacher care?" When you were late I assumed that you were probably tired so I just told them to ignore you, they'll listen to me if they know what's good for them."

Sateriasis didn't bother to reply to him. If conversation after conversation with Allen and personal experience from encounters with some of the more unsavoury people in his line of work, a certain silver haired lapdog come to mind, he knew that it wasn't the greatest idea in the world to reason with this type. Instead, he looked at the book that Nosakura had used to wake him up. The bold characters spelling out _"Crime and Punishment"_ wasn't something that he was expecting to see "Hmm, didn't expect you to be to the type to read something like that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nosakura muttered, his volume dipping down to a low drone. "I don't expect you to be the type that actually uses their brain but I don't say that part out loud."

'_I'm not the one who introduces themselves to people by saying I hate them!'_ Sateriasis groaned internally "It's not supposed to mean anything, I was merely making a point, with how you talked to me earlier about swimming I thought you'd be reading biographies about famous swimmers and technique. Not a Russian novel about the morality and necessity about crime."

The Student Council President set the book closed over the cover, sighing and rubbing at his eyes "Fucking Christ, a guess that even idiots are right occasionally. Look, Satyriasis, I have a life outside of swimming, I'm allowed to do whatever the fuck I please and you, of all people, isn't going to comment about what I decide to do."

Seeing an opportunity arise, Sateriasis pounced on it "Why are you being so defensive all of a sudden? For someone that was so blunt to me earlier and brazenly admits that he hates everyone he comes into contact with and also said "I am me and that's all there is to it" you're not really living up to that. Also, Sateriasis, it's not that hard to pronounce correctly."

"1: I don't care what your name is, Satyriasis, Sateriasis, Satariaiasis, it's inconsequential to the situation. 2: Don't go wantonly accusing me of things, I can make your life a fucking hell on earth with the snap of my fingers, so keep that mouth of yours shut. 3: This book? I don't much care for the actual novel, the story of a poor, shitty excuse of a man being destroyed by his guilt isn't something that actually grips me. Rather, the reason I have this book in particular is for anything but my own desire." Nosakura explained throwing up fingers to emphasise each point he made.

"Fine." Sateriasis said dismissively, support his still weary head with a hand under his chin "I see that it holds importance for you in a difference way. There was one book I read when I was younger, I don't really remember the title all that well but the opening line always stuck with me "Whenever you feel like criticizing any one just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had. In consequence I'm inclined to reserve my judgements on people." My father used to tell me that too, he didn't say any more in fact he rarely gave advice like that to me, but we were always unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that."

"Hmm." Nosakura hummed, flipping up a hand "Maybe you should follow your dad's advice then." A bell rung and the Student Council President moved away to the door but he spoke one last time before he left "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I spilt my drink on you earlier, you may want to clean up before next class."

Sateriasis looked down and, sure enough, there was a massive wet patch on his trousers which his tired brain had failed to notice. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?" He said calmly with a twitch of his left eye and the clenching of his fists. His teeth threatening to be ground into stubs from how hard his jaw was clenched.

"What did you just tell me? About not judging people? Do I really seem like the type to do something so heinous and evil to an innocent sleeping student that I'm sworn to help?" The smirk that tugged at the corners of Nosakura's lips was all the confession that Sateriasis needed. It looked like he was going to have to move forward those plans to put this guy in his place.

'_Die… Nosakura Acedia….' _He glared with the fire of ten thousand suns as the white haired teen slithered out of the class. That was soon followed by the swarm of students who all took their seats around him, he was glad that he had chosen one of the least populated rows, that other still sleeping student probably had the same gratification as well as not having to deal with Nosakura waking him up. Sateriasis envied him but decided that since he had already missed the majority of the day, he may as well decide to go back to sleep as he wasn't going to miss much else. He only hoped Nosakura wasn't the one who'd interrupt him this time.

In some ways, when he did fall asleep, he did get his wish. However, it didn't mean the person waking him up now was going to be any more tolerable "Hey." A green haired boy poked Sateriasis' head trying to wake him getting no response whatsoever "Heyyyyyyyyy!" He did it again this time causing the purple haired male to grumble and give his assailant a half-hearted swat. "Hey!" He went to poke him again but this time Sateriasis was prepared and caught the green haired boy in his tracks.

"What?!" The purple haired male said twisting the other boy's arm behind his back, initially out of annoyance and then holding it longer purely out of his own sadistic pleasure.

"Give! Give!" The boy cried as the teacher glared at the two of them forcing Sateriasis to release the arm.

"What do you want?" He whispered spitefully

"You're a duelist aren't you?" He said pointing towards Sateriasis' disk.

"Who are you?" Sateriasis said, desperate not to get involved with anyone.

"Well I suppose that's fine of you to ask considering you are only new here. I'm Nakoi Shima!" Nakoi said giving a smug smile and lifting his arm which had his duel disk attached to it. "Anything you'd like to say?"

"Not really." Sateriasis commented, with a distinct look of boredom on his face. Honestly, he was starting to wish that Nosakura was back, at least he wasn't as brash and arrogant as this new student who had decided to rob him of his slumber for the sake of stroking his own ego.

Nakoi shoved the disk closer into Sateriasis' face, so close that he could see all of the grimy fingerprints that coated the screen "Not even about this?" The green haired annoyance chirped happily, obsessively drowning in his world.

"Wonderful. A duel disk. I have one too, what's so special about it?" Sateriasis said dismissively, closing his eyes and drowning out his obnoxious counterpart's rambling. A habit he had gotten very good at from all those times he had to pretend to be listening to Allen during his friend's rants

"It's not just any ordinary disk!" Nakoi retained his complete obliviousness to Sateriasis' lack of caring "its SOL Technologies' latest disk!" He looked in awe at his disk not noticing Sateriasis was busy trying to fall asleep "This one has an A.I. that helps you during a duel!" Only to stop that attempt when the word "A.I." was brought into the picture. That brought up rather _unpleasant _emotions within him.

"People who need an A.I generally strike me as incompetent and weak." Sateriasis murmured, not looking Nakoi in the eye as he lent back in the chair and twiddled his thumbs. Trying to distract himself from lashing out.

The comment flew so far over Nakoi's head it could be considered a spaceship going into orbit "I also get priority access to the VR network, Link VRAINS!" His pointed his disk towards Sateriasis' tablet and pushed a button causing several screens to pop up, each one showing a different duelist in VRAINS, luckily for the school's furniture a certain idol just so happened not be present in them.

"Ever go there yourself?" Sateriasis asked, not really all that interested but just wanting to give the plump teen the bare minimum attention to make it seem like he cared.

"Don't be stupid!" Nakoi exclaimed once again catching the teacher's attention reigning in the boy's enthusiasm.

'Stupid is a prohibited word.' The A.I. responded which amused Sateriasis, he had always wanted to know why SOL would have a prohibited word function, it was probably one of those overbearing parent types who had someone managed to access the program somehow .

"It's a sacred gathering place for long-time duelists! Charisma Duelists go there too! It's not as easy as you might think! Not any old duelist can just waltz in there and become a great duelist! The system will chew you up and spit you out if you aren't good enough!" Naoki cried in a hushed tone, having learned his lesson from the two previous times.

"Alright point taken." Sateriasis said peaking at his level of disinterest, his hand was the only thing that was keeping his head in place.

"But maybe one day in the future I'll go to Link VRAINS, meet those great duelists, meet them card for card in a frantic clash of spirits and desires, possibly meet Charisma Duelists." Nakoi said looking hopeful "And maybe! Just maybe! Maybe even Playmaker!"

In the shock of hearing Playmaker's name, Sateriasis forgot about his arm being the only stabilizing factor. "Owww…" He said rubbing the point of impact. Recovering he spoke slyly, remembering how Kitgama himself couldn't even say much for certain he highly doubted anything of substance would come out but anything was welcomed "Playmaker, you say?" In the background, a wisteria haired teen perked up upon the mention of said vigilante's name.

"Yeah! He's the hottest duelist right now." Nakoi explained "He fights the Knights of Hanoi, a group of hackers who commit crimes in link VRAINS! Those guys don't stand a chance with Playmaker about! He'll pound them all into the dust!" The school wouldn't really mind if one of the tables was ripped from its foundations and lodged Nakoi's forehead, would it?

"Do you have any picture of Playmaker or any clue to his real life identity?" Sateriasis was curious, maybe if he found the real life Playmaker he wouldn't need to do it all himself, not that he had any problem with that and on the plus side he could rub it in Kitgama's face.

"Of course not!" Nakoi said once again oblivious to Sateriasis' emotion and everyone else in the class "He's so cool because no one knows his identity! He's like an enigma! I want to become a duelist of justice just like Playmaker and take down the Knights of Hanoi!" He shouted, striking a pose. However he spoke a little too loudly and for the third time was caught out by the teacher.

"You prat…" Sateriasis sneered under his breath.

"But… If I do ever go in… there's a few people I do worry about meeting…" Nakoi said, sweating a little and rubbing his clammy fingers together.

"Oh? Who would those people be? Y'know just in case I ever decide to go in there myself." Sateriasis asked somewhat knowingly, he could hazard a guess as to whom some of those people but was for the first time genuine in his questioning

"Well… For a start… Mammon…" Nakoi etched out "He's just really scary…" Sateriasis inwardly laughed, not minding the reputation he had built for himself, welcoming it in fact.

"What's wrong with him?"

"He's a bounty hunter who usually works mainly for the Knights of Hanoi, even for bounty hunter status he's one of the most dangerous, he has absolutely no concern for who he harms, even those caught in the crossfire." Sateriasis didn't like the last part, never once had he injured someone other than his target. That was saved for people like that wandering ball of angst called Blood Shepard.

"Hmmm. I see the issue you have with his methods but you don't know his motivation, maybe this is the only way for him. Is his identity known?" Sateriasis asked to see if his precautions were effective in disguising him.

"No. Just like Playmaker It's unknown who he is in real life. That's another thing that makes him so scary, he could be anyone!" Sateriasis was satisfied with the answer he had received but knew he stood no chance when faced with an experienced hacker.

"Suppose so, after all in the virtual world you don't know who is hiding behind that mask. What about the rest?"

Nakoi scratched the side of his head sheepishly, paling intensely down to nearly Sateriasis' level "Umm… I don't recall his name all that well… I think it was Kitgama." Ah, of course it was, despite his associate's laidback nature he was awfully prone to stalking the system and certain people he found interesting, that was going to look creepy as hell to anyone with a pair of eyes but Kitgama was surprisingly oblivious to that fact. "I've never seen him but according to those people, he can get… On Mammon levels of crazy if provoked."

"Interesting." It looked like Sateriasis would need to make a note of that for the next time the two of them met up.

A thought occurred Nakoi just as Sateriasis thought he'd successfully shut down the conversation "Say! How about joining Duel Club?"

"Thanks but no thanks. I'm not interested in joining a silly little club." His second attempt to shoot down the conversation met with little success. He also recounted what Nosakura had mentioned about said club too, if Nakoi was a member then chances were that the rest were just like him. He grumbled, refusing to admit that Nosakura was right about something.

"But it's a great opportunity to socialize and make friends! Also it helps improve your skills, we're always looking for new members."

"When in a hole don't keep digging." Sateriasis followed it up by saying "In layman's terms that means zip it."

"Oi! Zaizen, help me out here. I'm trying to get this guy to join us at the duel club, but he's being stubborn." Nakoi said to a girl sat not too far away.

"If he doesn't want to do it then don't force it upon him." Zaizen, full name Aoi Zaizen was a girl with light brown hair in a bob-cut and yellow eyes that was wearing the girl's uniform "No one is going to join if they don't want to."

"But the president said we need new members! He's even got a relatively up to date disk which shows he cares about the game! Better than Fujiki!" The girl sighed as she turned round to face Sateriasis.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Aoi Zaizen." To Sateriasis she seemed far too timid and reserved, probably one of those who was in a domineering relationship with someone. She didn't seem too bad in the looks department either, she could likely get herself a serviceable boyfriend but that wasn;t something that really mattered to Sateriasis. Only that he now remembered that Zaizen was the same name shared by the Security Manager of SOL Technologies, Akira Zaizen, it couldn't be a coincidence could it? "Would you like to join the Duel Club?"

"No, as stated before I'm not interested in a waste of my time." He replied, mind still fixated on thinking if there was a link between the two, they certainly looked nothing alike.

"There you go, Shima, he doesn't have any interest in joining." Sateriasis mentally praised the girl for how blunt to the point attitude and for getting Nakoi off his back or so he thought.

"Am I seriously the only one here who takes duel club seriously?" Nakoi wondered aloud before talking to Sateriasis for what he hoped was the final time "Look you don't have to join, just consider it, right? Personally I just think people shouldn't spend their time alone…"

Sateriasis seemed to be struck at the very core by that last part. _'Sateriasis no man is an island, sooner rather than later you're going to have to branch out, I can't always be there, without proper support a building cannot sustain itself.'_

"Actually…Nakoi was it? Upon further consideration, I will join the club might do me good." This was the conversation snapper since it was apparently enough to nullify Nakoi as he returned to his seat.

The purple haired male sighed, at least with the day ending after this lesson he wouldn't have to go to the club since he'd heard the commotion earlier today. Now all that was left was to find a way that wet patch wouldn't be spotted, damn Nosakura…

* * *

**(Time Skip) (Link Vrains)**

"Keh, that was too easy…" That deep voice belonged to a fairly standard looking avatar stood on one of the more secluded rooftops in the main Link VRAINS server. It was a male covered in black clothing with their face obscured by a mask and their hair being covered by a hood from the back of their clothing. Judging from his build, he was likely a man in the prime of his life with sizable muscles visible under the clothing. "It makes me wonder, why do so many pathetic runts think they can be great? Greatness is reserved only for those who have the power to attain it! Belief and action! That is what sets me apart!" He laughed loudly in triumph shortly afterwards, it wouldn't be long now until he had finally gained enough strength to finally take him to the top. That kid he had just crushed? Inconsequential, needs must.

He moved to leave the area but something happened "Momotaru Mikami. I didn't expect you to be the type of person who would do this kind of thing, tell me, why is it that the head of a major duelling firm that supplies the card bank to SOL Technologies is attacking random duelists like this?" The altered voice made the man stop on a dime in shock, he had made doubly sure before committing the act that there was no one else nearby. How had _he_ of all people arrived at the scene totally unnoticed? He turned his head and spied the shadowed lanky form of Mammon lingering against a wall behind him with an unreadable look on his face.

"What are you here for? What did you see? Who are you?" His paranoia had gotten the better him in that regard, now it was going to be markedly harder to intimidate this person as Mammon stepped out of the shadows.

Mammon grinned, placing his hand flat and making a circle with his thumb and index finger "Me? I'm the one whom you can call Mammon, professional bounty hunter currently tethered to the Knights of Hanoi. I saw everything you did." There was something dark in those eyes Momotaru could spy, while it made him uneasy, especially that part about witnessing everything, it gave him a strange sense of security simultaneously. Any goody two shoes would've already ran off to the authorities by now.

As the silence between the two passed, that strange security grew ever stronger. Momotaru began to grow comfortable, this was a Knight of Hanoi right? And a bounty hunter as well. What was he worrying about? "So? What's your business being here? You seem to know everything about me, you saw everything, so are you here to cart me off?"

The blue haired hunter smirked, massaging the upper section of his right arm "Cart you off? No, not really." There was one great benefit to using a voice modulator apart from hiding a very distinct register, that was the ability to hide your emotions as well, everything was borderline robotic. It made jobs like this so much easier. "I want only one thing."

"Oh? What's that?" Momotaru was beginning to like this. It felt relaxing. Not having to hide his true urges made for great catharsis.

"Give me 400,000 Yen and I'll forget I ever saw this." Was Mammon's rather simple demand, nothing less and nothing more, his smirk turning into a crooked toothy grin. "I can even call in a personal favour from a friend at SOL Technologies and this whole event can be wiped from the records."

Momotaru was silent for a moment before he laughed darkly, facing Mammon head on for the first time "Hehehe. Is that all? For blackmail that's awfully low for hush money. Given that you know who I am, you could probably earn a lot more money by revealing the truth and earning fame that way."

"The truth isn't worth a penny to me. Your own profit, money, is everything." Mammon replied, crossing over both his hands in the gesture he had made earlier. "I also don't have any evidence that you did this and it would risk my real life identity if I were to come out."

"Keh, of course I wouldn't have expected any less from you, naming yourself as the demon of greed isn't going to make you the most charitable person after all. How much was it again? 400,000 yen?" Momotaru pulled up a screen, fiddling with some of the numbers for a moment before turning back to the smirking Mammon. "Pray tell, where should I send this? I don't think you'd be the type to send out your bank details online. Your parents would be aghast if they found that out."

Mammon flashed up another screen "I like to think of this as my holding account, daddy dearest was very adamant that I was to keep my true account secluded this way."

Momotaru smirked, a nasty gleam in his eyes twinkling. "There you go, it's all been transferred to your account, now I do hope that we can follow through with our deal."

"Why of course, I don't see any reason for yours truly to be displeased." Mammon cawed, mimicking the look of the culprit with an even nastier gleam in his eyes.

"Haha! This is why it's so hard to stop doing things like this. I see those eyes of yours, they're the eyes of someone who doesn't believe the lives of others are worth trash." Momotaru leered, his smirk turning into full blown psychotic grin. "Now, we never speak of this again, you get your friend to tamper with network and you can go crawling back to your little clique of cyber terrorists."

Mammon said nothing as he turned away with a hand on his hip "Naturally. I'm a bounty hunter, we do like out moral codes after all, but as a Knight of Hanoi as well I don't particularly like it when someone decides to insult us in that fashion."

"Oh? Is the dog upset that I insulted its masters?" The black coated male cooed sickeningly, cupping his mouth in a megaphone gesture "Nothing less than what I'd expect."

Mammon turned around, his eyes shadowed by his hair, his lips moving but the words were barely audible to the culprit's ears. "Hah? Coming to make me eat my words? Don't be concerned, we can have a nice master duel here and no one will notice..."

Momotaru rose his duel disk in challenge but Mammon made no effort to copy, instead continuing on his blind march. His volume had reached the level of a whisper, his words resembled more of a disjointed stream of cognition than an actual sentence "Possibly... No matter... I'll pay it... What about...? Irrelevant..."

"What are you blabbering about? Have you lost your mind because of one comment?" Shocked by the sight, Momotaru dropped his disk and began to retreat backwards.

Like a zombie, Mammon was relentless in pursuit and was now staring down the man. "Get away from me! Get lost! I paid you! You've overstayed your welcome!"

He threw a punch but nothing could explain the shock he felt when Mammon blocked it with his palm "200,000." And then he began to crush the hand backwards until a disgusting snapping sound was let loose with a horrified scream accompanying it.

"Wh-what the...? How..." The man was so busy looking at what had become his hand that he didn't notice the look of sadistic glee in his attacker's eyes, the very same mismatched eyes he had complemented moments ago.

"Why should I tell you? After all, I'm a dog sucking up to my masters, what gives me the right to speak?" This time Mammon turned away for good and walked to the edge "Oh, I thank you for that money still, I'm not going to let my personal disdain for you get in the way of good money. Fourth rule for success: Always use any means available to you, though there are many forms of strength only one is actually useful, the power to manipulate." The blue haired hunter took one more step back. "There's something I've learned about Link VRAINS from experience, it turns out that there's more to this network than just being a virtual world. Where the bonds you make and the people you meet are fake, the damage you do to their person is very real. Something about their mind interpreting the damage as real."

The man grunted, his eyes twitching as he grasped his mangled right hand tightly, nothing could explain his white hot burning fury at the teen in front of him. This teen, this person so feared in the system looked so pale and sickly half the time, he was woefully thin and could probably be buffeted by a gentle gust of data material. It made his strength all the more jarring, it was unnatural. "What is this?!"

Mammon cocked his head sideways and turned it around slightly, his hair slowly fluttering in the growing digital wind "This is my Judgement of Corruption." He took the final step back and gracefully fell from the building and onto a board that just so happened to be passing by at the exact time.

The board, known within the network as a D-board and commonly used for Speed Duels, was one that wasn't all that different from the one used by the Knights of Hanoi. In fact, Mammon's was a gift from them for a well done mission, it was slimmer than the rest but longer to accommodate his lankier, lithe frame. It had purple gems and a green semicircle at the end.

Duelling people like Momotaru was something that Mammon had never bothered himself with, why bother wasting his time when he could simply take their money from them and then leave them for dead? As he said, the truth isn't worth a penny, this was more personal desire than anything else, it wasn't as if Revolver had sent him out to take down these people because they were SOL goons or were threatening the Knights' existence.

"You're really dramatic about these things, Sat." Another voice joined the scene, a voice that Mammon didn't need an introduction too. He turned his head slightly and saw the form of someone wearing offensively shiny and tacky looking golden knightly armour upon the chest plate was the symbol of a mirror, not any different from the one that emblazoned the hand of the avatar's user. Spiky black hair flowed gently in the wind, golden spikes were drooped down into his field of vision, nearly covering now purple eyes.

"Me? Dramatic? I'm not the one who got dragged into an acting troupe by an excitable idiot, Allen." Mammon replied, his words having no real bite behind them as they had with Momotaru.

Allen, known in VRAINS as Superbia, surfed up to beside the blue haired hunter "Whatever helps you sleep at night."

Mammon rolled his eyes "Right. You blocked the feed in SOL didn't you?" At the nod of his friend's head Mammon relaxed his tensed arm somewhat. It was lucky for them that Allen's dad was able to command such authority within the company, one could call him the favourite of the executives, which allowed him certain privileges… Privileges which Allen were able to abuse. "Good. Regardless of the fact you just mentioned my name, thanks by the by." A smirk from Allen was the closest he was going to an apology "I don't want them to see what's about to come next."

"Oh, you did that thing again didn't you? Somebody rub you the wrong way again? So what did you do this time? Break their hand? Leg?" Superbia chirped like a kid on his sugar rush.

"Hand." Mammon stated simply as if he were a doctor stating a diagnosis "Deserved it too. Now, let's get out of here before anything bad happens. You know what to do next." Following that, Mammon and his board dissolved into a sea of cerulean pixels.

Superbia smirked, showing off slightly sharper than average teeth that would probably really hurt if you were bitten by it. "Your wish is my command, Sat." And he too vanished into cerulean pixels, leaving no trace that they were ever there to begin with.

* * *

As soon as he had left the system, Allen raced to Sateriasis' apartment. His friend resided in the centre of the city where most of the more expensive accommodations were built. They had both talked this over when he first moved there, naturally a single teenager with no parents buying one of the most expensive apartments available was going to look suspicious so the two of them had drawn up a plan and all it needed was Allen's dad's approval which he gave tacit approval of.

He swung the door open and bolted to Sateriasis' room. The apartment itself was rather simple in comparison to its size, there were only two rooms, the one he was in now which was a kitchen and living room too small for the space given. If the purple haired teen wasn't so much of a cheapskate then it would definitely be better than the tacky mess of bad chairs with shitty back support, appliances that fluctuated between electrocuting anyone who touched it and exploding when they were used and that poor excuse for a TV was a death trap waiting to happen.

Usually if it had been under any other circumstance he would've taken the time to take pictures of Sateriasis' bedroom for future blackmailing purposes, there had been more than a few hours of bickering over someone of Sateriasis' more _private _interests. Including one very compromising photo that he had discretely managed to snap before he was chased away.

However, the state said male was in made Allen sick to his stomach. He still remembered the first time he had seen it happen to Sateriasis. The skin around his arms bulging and contorting around his muscles, although he was lanky and thin he hid a very well developed set of muscles, no one who wasn't already very strong could cause as much property damage as what the long haired teen had done that day. That was also the same day he had first seen him writhe on the floor in pain, suffering from severe spasms that twisted his body in a hellish way.

That was the scene that was laid out before him, the feared Mammon convulsing on his bed, his muscles bulging from his skin which had cramped so far in that the bone could be fully made out. It wasn't just his limbs too, his whole body excluding his face, wrought with a painful gaze at Allen, was wrecked by the spasms. Honestly, Allen wanted to turn away and bleach his eyesight, but he had to power through in order to help his friend. "Just try to keep calm, Sat. This isn't anything that hasn't happened before, just remember that. I'll go get it."

Despite all that was happening to him, Sateriasis didn't seem to have much of a reaction, his actions fixated on gnawing his fingernails so hard that the tips of his fingers were starting to bleed. "Jesus Christ, just what did you do this time? You said you broke that guy's hand, what drove you? How much did you spend?" He ignored Allen's question, too busy with his own internal thoughts to care.

Allen moved away from the bedside and towards one of the drawers underneath where Sateriasis kept his computer, he rummaged through a load of pointless shit before he found what he was looking for, not caring for the mess now lying on the floor. He grabbed the other's head, pulling it away from his destroyed fingernails and dumping what was in his hand down his friend's open mouth. "There. Done."

A few moments of silence passed and Allen watched the cramps gradually revert with the spasms slowing down too, they were still ongoing but it wasn't going to affect him as bad anymore down to the point where Sateriasis finally seemed to take note of something other than his own pain. "Gah." He sneered, shaking his hands and letting some of the blood dripping to the floor.

The spiky haired teen placed his hands on his hips as he store down at Sateriasis "You've got a shit tonne of explaining to do, Sat."

"I have no need to tell you anything." Sateriasis replied. "You don't need to know, you haven't needed to know every single time you asked about it." His tone was more of exasperation than anger.

Having had enough of this over the years since the first incident, Allen grabbed a hold of Sateriasis' hand and pointed to each destroyed fingernail individually "I may not be the most intelligent person on this earth but I'm no idiot when it comes to these sorts of things. I've known you for 10 years, I think I know whenever you're thinking about something that's hurting you, I mean, it's not every day that someone tries to bite their own fingers off."

"Nor is it that someone's "best" friend kicks them in the face!" Sateriasis snapped back "What I do with my body is up to me, I'll pay it all if I have to!"

"But what reason would you have to live if there's nothing left?!" Allen shouted not realising the certain choice of words triggering something deep within Sateriasis' psyche.

* * *

**(Flashback)**

"Tell me, Sateriasis Marlon, what is the reason you want to live for?" That voice had awoken him during one of those nights during his hellish stay in those always dark rooms that constituted what became known to him over time as the Inferno Project. It had startled him at the time since he was in the process of collapsing from sleep exhaustion and the lacking "food" supplies that the perpetrators dared to call nutrition. "Out with it, boy."

The younger Sateriasis didn't know how to reply to the voice, he knew it wasn't the obsessively calm and mild mannered that belonged to the voice who spoke most of the time, nor was it that dull medical monotone that always spoke after the result of each experiment like they were all caged animals. No, this voice was indefinable, no inflection, no emotion, only diction and language to go off of and the voice was pissed. "Time may be infinite but my time here is finite. I'll say it again, what is the reason you're still alive? Realistically, you should be dead. There's something keeping you alive, something driving you forward. What. Is. It?"

One of his longish bangs from his markedly shorter hair fell in between his eyes as he gritted his teeth. He still didn't know if he could trust this voice or even if this voice was real and he was simply imagining its existence as his mental state fell into the depths of hell. "I… I… My sister…"

"Sister?" The voice sounded vaguely amused, the first sign of inflection "Well, what about her then? What's so special about her? And why her alone? Surely you must have parents too, friends as well, why aren't they important to you? There's also someone else… Dear… To you… That you're not mentioning."

He pounded his fist down on the rusty ground, the only reason he knew it was rusty was because of that one time when a dark figure had emerged into his room, one of the culprits whose lanky body and gangly limbs looked inhuman in the darkness. He didn't want to remember what had happened during that meeting so he repressed it, his present day counterpart unable to identify the face or voice that harmed him. Only his words. "My sister… She needs me… I need her too…"

"Answer everything, boy. Time is short." The voice reverted to its previous pissed off nature.

"My dad… He's… Important too… But he can care for himself… My friends have others… Gumina… She has nothing." Sateriasis etched out, biting at his fingernails within each pause, threatening to bite them into oblivion and draw blood.

"Hmm. Wanting someone else to live is your reason for living. You're an odd one Marlon." And the voice faded soon after, leaving the young six year old boy gnawing at his fingernails for the next few hours.

**(Flashback end)**

* * *

"Reason…" Sateriasis mumbled, subconsciously moving his mouth as if he were biting his nails despite the fact Allen had trapped his hands inside of his own.

"You're forgetting a very important detail here, Sat." Allen's voice brought the pale teen's eyes up to his, emphasising the tattoo on both of their hands "I was there too. I said I wasn't an idiot, I know you only do this whenever you think of that event. The Inferno Project."

The Inferno Project. The three words that had dominated his life for the ten years after it had happened. It was a mystery to even the world's best detectives, nothing about how the kids were taken was known, the exact location was still shrouded in mystery and the people behind it were coated in a fog of impenetrable obscurity.

However, there was one piece of evidence that the culprits had left behind. Each of the victims had an object tattooed on them on a different part of their body, the intricate and ornate designs were the main evidence that the event had been premediated and planned before it had been carried out.

Sateriasis and Allen both knew that there were more people involved in the project but they had never come across another person with a tattoo like theirs. Instead of actively searching the others out though, the pair of them alongside their fathers had decided it was for the best if they didn't try and trigger any traumatic episodes from the other possible kids and just focus on the their own issues.

Those days immediately after their rescue had been _rough_ so to say. The last thing that was needed was to take care of more kids with the same issues.

It was in times like this, when thinking about the defining moment of his life, that a certain excerpt from something he once read came to mind _"As you can imagine, those who had fallen this far had been so worn down by their tortures in the other seven hells that they no longer had the strength to cry out." _Those seven hells, it's what he felt like he went through, torture after torture with no respite in his suffering. That voice was like his spider's thread, it always came back to him after a while but was so delicate that it could be cut off at any moment.

"You said you stopped doing this." Allen complained, delicately brushing off some of the cracked areas of the nail.

"And you said you'd stop being obnoxious but see how that went!" Sateriasis growled, ripping his hands out of Allen's "What I decide to do with my body isn't something you should be bothered about!"

Allen looked remarkably calm, staring at his own nails "I'm not the one you should be worrying about, I can imagine what it would be like if Gumina found out what you were doing to yourself."

That name made Sateriasis widen his eyes, his mouth falling agape "What…?" He glared harshly at Allen.

"Ah, I can see her now. All excited to see her brother again, her grateful smile with those vibrant green eyes full of joy at seeing the person she most wanted to see. But then… She looks at what actually stands before her… A shattered soul, scarred, fingernails bleeding and non-existent, wild eyes that are nothing like the person she once knew." A sly look crossed Allen's expression, his eyes sharpening knowing that he had finally gotten through that thick wall "Imagine how scared she must be at this sight. "Who's this person claiming to be my brother?!" She would yell, quivering as you attempt to touch her." He paused briefly, letting Sateriasis look down at his pulsating muscles and shattered hands "I don't care if you don't care enough to stop doing it for me, but if you truly care about her then you should be more careful."

Sateriasis remained silent, unsure of what to really say. He thought about what Allen had said _'Gumina. Would you really be scared of me? I'm still the same. Aren't I.' _He picked up his jacket which was lying on the side of his bed "Come with me." Was all that he said to Allen, who like a loyal dog followed the order as the two of them left.

Both them left to the local city hospital, standing not too far away from the city centre, it was large building that could be definitively seen for miles, certainly making it easy to locate. When they entered Sateriasis staggered sluggishly through the entrance and up to the reception where he was greeted by a smiling face behind the desk. "Hi there Sateriasis! I see your friend is with you." They were greeted happily, "Is this the usual?" Sateriasis nodded glumly, not wishing to speak.

"Correct, he's got something important he wants to say." Allen replied, twisting one of the strands of his hair around his index finger.

"I see." She then handed a card over to Sateriasis "You know the room number well enough by now there's no point in me saying."

Sateriasis turned off, walking down the corridor to the only room he was concerned about, no one else mattered to him.

He opened the door, pulled up a nearby chair and sat down beside the medium sized hospital bed that contained on it a teenage girl with medium length lime green hair. Her eyes closed and an oxygen mask on her face, a heart rate monitor beeped showing a steady and normal heart rate.

"Hey there, it's me again," Sateriasis' voice for once had some degree of emotion in it "You must be getting annoyed by how often I come." He laughed to himself, intentionally blocking out Allen's groan.

"But I've got big news for the two of us," Sateriasis had brought an envelope containing the money he had been given by Revolver and the Knights of Hanoi "My employer just handed me a huge payday and I intend do my upmost to help them. But I never forget who I'm doing this for in the first place, my reason for living."

Tears swelled ever so slightly in the hunter's eyes as he lent on the bed "I can never forgive myself for what happened, it's all my fault you are in here and I'm going to fix it, no matter what I have to do."

Allen glared at those accursed words spilling out of his friend's mouth "Gumina I'm so sorry…I wasn't thinking clearly and let my judgment be clouded." He sat with his eyes closed only exposing himself to the sound of the real world.

"Sateriasis." Allen spoke out.

"What do you want Allen?" Sateriasis wasn't interested in speaking to anyone refusing to even open his eyes as Allen pulled up another seat.

"You asked me to come, why was that if you're just going to ignore my very presence?" Allen said keeping his voice low and sounding moderately pissed off.

Sateriasis looked over with one eye cracked open, a distinct quirk that Allen knew all too well "You're here to see if your little theory holds up." He looked back down at Gumina "Hey, Gumina, say you would wake up soon and saw me, I'm still the same person right? Everyone grows over time, right? That shithead Allen doesn't know anything, right?"

"Very funny." Allen sneered, feeling like he'd been stood up "You can call me a shithead normally but what good is it going to do when you talk to someone who can't hear you."

"You're wrong." Sateriasis stated simply "She can hear all, that's the absolute truth. And she knows that your little theory is all bullshit."

Allen remained silent, shooting Sateriasis a dirty look. In response Sateriasis showed Allen the palm of his right hand. "You mentioned the Inferno Project, all of us bear the marking of our vices from it. Mine represents excessive greed and avarice. Yours, a mirror for self-confidence and extreme hubris, such as arrogant belief that one is correct."

Allen fidgeted in response, grunting slightly "Alright Sat. Point taken."

"The last promise I ever made to my father was to take care of and protect Gumina from harm but as you can see I failed."

"I see…" Allen sighed glumly he didn't really know what to do help Sateriasis out of his episode. He supposed that he was the one who had triggered it this time but he hoped that Sateriasis understood that it was coming from the right angle. At this point he knew that there was really only one way to get his attention "Want to go mine? For a drink? Dad said he was going to be working late today and probably won't be home until the dead of night. He wouldn't mind either way."

Sateriasis flicked a disinterested look over to Allen before also sighing "Ah, fine then. I suppose it's something to take my mind off this." He took one last look down at Gumina and then tugged at the ribbon in his hair "I'll be back soon, don't worry." He planted a soft kiss on his sister's forehead before following a more energized Allen out of the room, closing the door gently on his way out.

Elsewhere in the city, another party was having a very important conversation. Inside the back of an inconspicuous Hot Dog truck casually parked near that house just overlooking Stardust Road, something not so normal was being reviewed. The back of the truck, hidden behind the exterior of a standard Hot Dog van was a set of high tech computers, the main screen in the centre playing over the duel between Mammon and Colt which they had somehow managed to attain. "What do you think of this guy, Yusaku? Mammon. He seems brutal, perhaps more so than some of those Knights you had to face the other day." That voice belonged to the man manning the computers, he had with fair skin and grey eyes. Purple hair flowed down to the base of his neck with multiple small bangs brushed over to hide his forehead, he also sported a small goatee. In terms of attire he dressed simply, wearing a brown trench coat over a purple hoodie with a bronze zipper and light blue shirt, and teal pants tucked into burgundy boots with prominent black soles.

"Is he Hanoi?" Was the first question out of a one Yusaku Fujiki's mouth, he was a teen likely no older than 16, he had green eyes, and dark blue hair that spiked outward in the back and contained light blue bangs with pink accents. His attire was the Den City High School uniform Sateriasis and Nosakura wore. "If not then what he does is of no business to our mission, Kusanagi-san."

The other male, a one Shoichi Kusanagi, grinned as his companion said that "I thought you might say that. It's true that he isn't covered in white like most Knights are, the only white he wears are those gloves, but he is definitely affiliated with them." Another screen was brought up with the data Shoichi had collated on Mammon "It's not much but it's better than nothing, either he's really good at covering his tracks, has someone in the Knights covering his tracks for him or he has a secret associate that's helping him get around SOL." The only things state in the profile was the rather mundane, his hair colour, the date his account was created, the name of the deck he was used but the smoking gun that proved his connection was a history of transactions on an account linked to him, many of the transactions could be traced back to the Hanoi although they were naturally encrypted to the point that tracking them was meaningless. "It's all just a theory at this moment, although if I were to point something out, when I checked the data afterwards, every bit of it had been erased from the network's history as if it had never happened. Officially this never happened, this recording seems to be from some third party."

Yusaku had gained an interest the second Shoichi had confirmed Mammon's affiliation but there was one other thing he wanted to clear up before moving on to that topic "Who's the one dueling him?"

"Ah, that would be Colt, he's much easier to find information on." Another screen lit up and everything on Colt was laid bare, his deck list, the date of account, his official entry logs and an account not too dissimilar from Mammon's where an innocuous amount of money had been deposited under SOL's name. "Bounty hunter for SOL Technologies, has been for well over three years. It appears that he was on a mission to defeat Mammon."

"Hmm." Yusaku murmured, now moving onto the points he wanted to bring up "Kusanagi-san, one thing I noticed in that recording was that Mammon's voice was altered, do you think it possible that there's a program to undo it?"

Shoichi grinned again "I thought you'd might say something like that, I already put it through some software but it appears that whatever he's using is very advanced tech, it'd take me a few days to get a definitive voice out of that but then I'd need a sample of the same voice to make the comparison complete meaning finding him this way won't hold much water for that long."

Yusaku nodded with just one thing left on my mind "Do you know who the one recording was?"

The purple haired adult's smile faded "That's thing. One would assume that it was that pair of reporters that are always about the place, but if notice closely they were actually visible from the moment Mammon summoned Corruption Dragon, this recording shows the monsters he used to summon it meaning that whomever is recording this was there from the start.

"The question is… Who?" Yusaku finished off for him.

* * *

**(Unknown Location)**

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. You're an incorrigible sort and that ability of yours is a nuisance for sure. However, soon you'll be met with the Ruler of them all, I'll be waiting for the moment when you meet up with him. It's fated after all." Pale fingers gently caressed the carved edges of a large wooden surface, metal shackles trailed in the distance, clinking with every movement that was made "Once the wheels of fate have been set in motion there's no turning them back. Fortuna has decided your fate and all you can do is watch."

A loud mechanical whirring turn the person's attention away from whatever they were doing, they looked into the centre of the room. "Ah, it's you! Have you come to rid me of my loneliness? It can get awfully boring all here on my lonesome, watching the festivities from my cramped compounds, Fortuna was awfully cruel in giving me such a place. Hmm? You don't care about that? And you're not here to free me? I'm not needed yet?! Ah, so cruel! I'm acting like a child? Au contraire, my dear Dostoyevsky, take a good look at what's become of you before you remember who the one holding the strings of our life is?"

Hair briefly fell into the voice's eyes "I'm glad that you're still smart, although I could do without the whole "Evil be thy good" kind of attitude. Huh? You want to know how Fitzgerald is doing? Then allow me…"

"Rota fatum, volvit!"

* * *

**A/N: Second chapter done. This seems to be a recuring thing now, I'll occasionally write a chapter that doesn't feel natural if I force in a duel, this was one of those chapters. I've simply decided that sometimes a chapter to the characters all by themselves is just as viable.**

**This story will probably be the one I update my sporadically since I'm focused mainly on my Arc-V fic but I'll try my best with this one. **

**Not much else to say other than see ya next time.**


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